A Booklover’s Guide to Texas
More on the state’s indie bookstores, storytelling champions, and literary destinations turning the page
It’s early spring. Political primary season. War looms. Air travelers face record delays. And a jury finds social media companies guilty of creating harmful, addictive content targeting our nation’s youth. But here in Comfort, down a winding Hill Country lane shaded by ancient live oaks and lined with wildflowers in fresh bloom, community still rules the day. Through the elegant stone entryway of Bending Branch Winery, a crowd has gathered to participate in a centuries-old tradition of poetry, fellowship, and discourse.
“We push beyond platitudes and seek to be a balm for the soul,” says Lucy Griffith, a poet and retired psychologist who cohosts the event.
When Comfort was founded in 1854, the town was populated largely by German immigrants called Freethinkers. These people prioritized intellectualism and democracy over religious or political autocracy through forums where they discussed current affairs and contemplated philosophy, literature, and music. More than 170 years later, the Freethinkers tradition carries on at the Comfort Quarterly Reading.
Four times a year at Bending Branch, residents of Kendall County and beyond gather to hear poetry, prose, or songs and then engage in intellectually stimulating conversations with visiting artists. Griffith and fellow local poet Judi Youngers started the gathering four years ago to coalesce around art, community, and dialogue. The event has earned a sparkling reputation in the literary community, drawing some of the biggest writers in Texas—poet Naomi Shihab Nye, novelists Sarah Bird and Paulette Jiles, and Shinyribs singer-songwriter Kevin Russell—to the Central Texas town with fewer than 2,000 residents.
“The Freethinkers believed in gatherings that were spirited, fun, and free,” Griffith says. “Over time, our attendees have grown into a thoughtful, responsive, encouraging group of all ages and varied interests, and they always make our readers feel welcome.”
This evening’s performers are award-winning Vermont poets James Crews and Brad Peacock, coeditors of the anthology Love Is for All of Us: Poems of Tenderness & Belonging from the LGBTQ+ Community & Friends. The couple traveled more than 2,000 miles to read their verse in front of a room full of local business owners, artists, ranchers, and retirees. The audience does not let them down. Unlike many reading salons, where a light applause or a nodding head might signal approval, the Comfort crowd—in Lone Star fashion—often whoops and gasps and cheers. Tonight they laugh and cry and burst into spontaneous applause.
“The level of engagement and awareness is off the charts,” Crews says.
Nye, a Pushcart Prize winner and former Guggenheim Poetry Fellow who lives in San Antonio, agrees. “It’s possible the audiences in Comfort are some of the most enthusiastic groups of people on earth,” she says. “It’s a triumph.”
One member of that audience is John Schilhab, who describes himself as an ex-cowman and roughneck turned corporate executive. He says tonight’s level of enthusiasm is something that happens at every Comfort Quarterly Reading. “It’s a version of a soul revival redefined for today’s realities,” Schilhab says.
Tonight, many of the poems deal with hope and love and how to maintain each during volatile times. Crews and Peacock inspire the crowd with their reading, then commiserate with them during the civic-minded discussion that follows. The evening closes with handshakes, hugs, and a sense of togetherness in an increasingly fractured world.
“It’s a gathering with purpose,” Griffith says. “Conversations are opened up about issues that really matter to us. It’s healing in a way I didn’t expect.”
